With the advent of computers, interactive electronic communications, and the Internet, as well as advances in the digital realm of consumer information, has come a reinvention of conventional entertainment and communication services to enhance programming, recording, and viewing of multimedia, such as broadcast television programs. Traditionally, broadcast media, being based on pre-computer age technology, has developed on its own path, without any regard to other media systems. With readily available, cost-effective broadband services, bandwidth intensive applications, such as audio and video streaming, have become viable mediums. Also, there has been substantial growth in the use of set-top boxes (STBs) equipped with digital video recording capabilities. Through the digital video recorder (DVR), a user may record content, such as a television program, to a memory medium so that the program may be viewed by the user at a more convenient time. Unfortunately, the ability to record live broadcast programs is rather inflexible in that such programs cannot be pre-processed to facilitate the introduction of supplemental content, navigation through the program, or scheduling.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that provides flexible, efficient techniques to manipulate broadcast programs.